


It is best served piping hot

by mywasteddream



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Beginning of Romance, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-18
Updated: 2015-03-18
Packaged: 2018-03-18 11:11:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3567470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mywasteddream/pseuds/mywasteddream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jun learned that Nino drank decaf coffee when he ordered his soy latte to-go (which Jun could not comprehend, because why would anyone buy coffee from chain-stores if it were not for the caffeine?), but whenever he drink-in he would order Americano – not decaf – and asked for mug instead of paper cup. But of course, Jun also learned that their first encounter was not the only annoying one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It is best served piping hot

“Would you like to upgrade to medium size? We have special promotion today to celebrate our shop's anniversary, you can get upgrade for only ¥25 instead of the normal ¥40,” the barista flashed his smile at Nino.

Nino looked up and gave a questioning glare, “You mean, pay less for my own caffeine overdose?” he snorted his sarcasm, “Thanks, but no.”

There was a split second when the barista looked murderous, but the next moment it changed again into the same commercial mirth that greeted Nino just as he came closer to the counter. “One tall Americano, drink-in, that would make ¥300.” The barista took a mug, filled it with the order and passed it out to Nino.

Nino on the other hand, took out four ¥50, five ¥10, and ten ¥5 from his Doraemon coin purse and put it on the small tray. He liked using small coins whenever he can. Coins are heavy. They make noise.

“Receiving … uh… exactly ¥300,” the barista stumbled as he counted the coins on the tray and put them into the register.

Nino did not bother to wait for the barista to hand over the receipt. He took his drink and went to where Sho was sitting.

“You should stop doing that,” Sho said as he put the mug on the table and took a seat.

“Stop what?”

Sho just rolled his eyes and started opening the advanced econometric book and continued working on his assignment. Next to him, Nino took a sip of the coffee before putting his glasses on and taking a book on consumerism theories to start working on his term paper.

 

*

 

“I’m starting to have murderous intent on that imp,” Jun muttered at his fellow barista.

“Nino’s not that bad, Matsumoto-kun,” the sleepy looking barista said as he washed the mixing pitchers, “He pays with small coins. I like small coins. You know how some people pay using ¥10,000 bill just for ¥330 latte?”

Jun darted his eyes to the small figure who currently hunched over a thick book and hands busy typing on his tablet. That Nino. Jun knew the name because the company’s policy is to write the customer’s name on the cup. Nino used his own tumbler whenever he bought for take-out, and always bought tall-size so he could use the mug instead, so Jun only asked his name once, when they first met. Even then, Jun was already aggravated by the man.

 

Their first meeting was when Jun was on his second day of training in that shop, about two months ago. He started to get the job to save money for exchange program in Paris. He studied fashion design, and Paris seemed to be the best place. Being a barista is a cool part-time job, not as highly paid as construction worker, but less tiring and he would be able to check the customers’ fashion sense. After all, the coffee shop he worked in was in Shibuya.

Actually, he considered working as a barista fun. Jun liked meeting people and he absolutely had no problem talking to strangers. He first learned to attend the cashier while slowly being trained to prepare for simple beverages under supervision of a senior barista – that would be Ohno, the sleepy barista who worked the same shift as him. The SOP for serving customer was quite easy too.

Taking care of the cashier and taking order was not a problem, was what Jun first thought when he was briefed. It was simple; greeting, asking if they’d drink-in or take-out, asking the order, asking the size, asking special preferences – if they’d like to add syrup or use decaf, informing of promotions if there were any, mention the price, count the payment before putting it into the register, give the receipt and return to the customer. It was that simple, but with Nino it was troublesome since the very beginning.

The first impression Jun had on that Nino was colorful – or rather De Stijl. He was wearing bright yellow parka with three black lines on the left side of the chest. There was a red full-size headphone on his head which blue cable went into a red-black bag. He had a blue – vivid B255 – DS in his hands. The pants were normal jeans, but the shoes were one of those boot type converse, red ones. To top it off, that Nino was wearing a vintage t-shirt with Piet Mondrian composition print on it.

Jun approved the part that the man bothered taking off his headphone and paused the game as he arrived at the cashier. He did not look up, though, preferring to look down at the menu on the table.

“Good morning,” Jun started his greeting, “Would you like to drink-in or take away?”

He did not look up.

“Take away… ummm… latte, decaf … soy latte.”

Up to this point, everything was normal. It may not be in the same order as the SOP, but it was acceptable. After all, SOP was made for employees and not for customers.

“Which size would you like to have?”

“I umm… actually have no idea,” the customer slipped his DS into his bag and pulled out something. “I have a tumbler,” he continued while putting a steel tumbler on the counter, “but I’m not sure which size would fit this.”

Jun couldn’t help but be a little shocked to see the shop’s rival chain logo carved there.

“Uh…” Jun was not sure what to do. It was only his second day working in that coffee shop.

That made Jun’s second impression of Nino as lack of delicacy. Although there was no written rule about what type of tumbler could be used by a customer, using a competitor chain tumbler was certainly not a good manner. Well, of course, if you argue about being green and reducing paper cup use, then any tumbler should be acceptable. But still….

“Am I not allowed to use tumbler?” came a question from the customer. The question sounded innocent at the beginning, but it was soon followed with, “or is it because I’m using a competitor’s goods?” The face looked up and Jun saw a pair of eyes with mischievous glint.

It was a good thing that Ohno stepped in. The senior barista grabbed the tumbler and said, “This should fit a short latte. Might be able to fit a tall one, but it might spill a bit. I recommend you to get a small soy latte.”

The customer smiled at Ohno, “Small decaf soy latte to go, then.”

“We will call you when the order is finished,” Ohno said, “How should we call you?”

“Nino. Just use katakana. Ni no.”

That was how Jun learned that the annoying imp had a name.

 

Days after Jun learned that that Nino was more or less a frequent customer. He had many tumblers too, two of them were the chain’s goods – at least among the ones he had seen. He also never showed up with competitor’s tumbler anymore. Nino drank decaf coffee when he ordered his soy latte to-go (which Jun could not comprehend, because why would anyone buy coffee from chain-stores if it were not for the caffeine?), but whenever he drink-in he would order Americano – not decaf – and asked for mug instead of paper cup. But of course, Jun also learned that their first encounter was not the only annoying one.

 

Like the time Jun realized that Nino was a regular customer and tried asking him to get the point card.

“Do you have a point card?” Jun asked as the SOP dictated him.

“No,” came the answer.

“Would you like to make one? For every purchase for ¥500 and over, you will get a stamp, and for every five stamps, you are entitled to have these free bonuses…” Jun was in the middle of his explanation when that Nino cut him.

“Well, I’m not interested in any attempt to make me buy things I don’t particularly need. Do you know that when there’s discount, people end up buying more?”

Jun could only roll his eyes before resuming his commercial smile.

 

Or that one time when it’s Valentine’s Day.

“Would you like to have chocolate cake to go with your coffee?” Jun offered, “Special event for Valentine’s Day, we offer 50% discount for chocolate cake purchase to our male customers.” Which Jun still thought as a weird promotion event, but then, the head of that coffee shop was more or less out of the box.

“Thanks,” Nino answered, “I would rather have my chocolate cake for free on Valentine’s Day. And I have had enough chocolate for today.” He even emphasized by opening his bag and showed off chocolates he received on that day. Some of them were even honmei-choco. And Jun had not received any for that day; he had not gone to his school nor had he checked into his locker.

 

Or that time when the shop offered glazed donut if the customer agreed to upgrade to a bigger size.

“Not only that I have to pay extra for caffeine overdose, but also for sugar rush?”

And Jun wanted to remind that Nino that he was buying a decaf. There would not be any caffeine overdose no matter how much he drank. He however swallowed his words and proceeded to payment.

 

*

 

“He’s been staring at you,” Sho whispered.

“Who?”

“The barista. The tall one with glasses,” Sho gestured with his eyes, then ducking his head and pretend he was still concentrating with his books.

Nino stole a glance to his back, “Matsumoto? I think he’s interested in me.”

Sho scoffed, “You think everyone is interested in you, Nino. But I think he wants to kill you, or something.” He paused, “Wait, you know his name.”

“It’s written on his uniform.”

“Right.” Sho never noticed such things. “But don’t you think he’s rather intense today? What did you say to him?”

“I think I declined when he offered for some upgrade. That’s it.”

Sho rolled his eyes. As much as he loved his junior at the lab, he had to admit that Nino could be irritating at times. “Are you still doing this ‘don’t make me advertise your product just because I’m a customer’ thing? Or your ‘your promotions and discounts make people spend more than necessary’ campaign?”

“No,” Nino sighed, “It’s one of my ‘I’m not paying to make myself feel sick’ urge.”

“You can say it nicely like ‘thank you, but no.’”

“I did say that.” In the end, at least, Nino added to himself.

“Yeah, right.” Sho went back to his books and notes.

Nino looked back again towards the counter. That tall barista – Matsumoto – was now serving a salaryman. His had his advertisement smile pasted on his face. Nino liked that smile, but he enjoyed more when the smile changed into different expressions during the short talks they had whenever Nino ordered his coffee.

 

*

 

When Nino first met Jun, he was doing his research on how company employee would react on “unintentional competitor branding”. Obviously, apparel lines would not bat their eye lashes when they see customers wearing competitor's brand, and most restaurants had obviously wrote “no outside food” warning on their menu. That’s why Nino chose coffee-chains. Tokyo had many coffee-chains and most of them had their signature tumbler. That, and he had never seen any shops explicitly mentioned “no other-chain’s tumbler”. So he went by that. After all, these coffee-chain tumblers were meant to advertise product.

It was just a fun research. He would go to a coffee shop three times within one week; the first one would be using the chain’s tumbler, the second one would be using a common tumbler without any coffee-chain brand, the last visit would be to use a competitor’s tumbler. He had his lab-mate Aiba to help him by taking video recording of each visit and analyze the way the barista acted. Aiba did a great job on pretending he was watching online video on his phone as he sat facing the counter and took the whole conversation into video. Thank goodness for that technology called smart-phones.

The shop where Matsumoto worked was the last shop he visited. It was a shop he frequented, especially on group-study days with his senior Sakurai Sho, and it was the nearest to his campus. On the last visit for that shop, he met Matsumoto – a trainee. He did not notice that the man was a trainee until he looked up. That time a senior barista – Ohno, Nino’s favorite barista because he always added cute doodles on the post-it that bear his name – came to rescue Matsumoto.

To tell the truth, Nino did not care much about Matsumoto until he sat at his cubicle and went through the tapes that Aiba made for him. Matsumoto came out in the last file. He had rather goofy tooth-paste advertisement smile when he greeted Nino. He stayed smiling until Nino put out the tumbler on the counter. Rather than annoyed or troubled as he expected from barista who saw competitors’ brand, Matsumoto’s reaction was more dumbfounded, and then irritated as Nino asked if it was not allowed to use the tumbler, and at last he gave out that “what am I doing here” face as his senior took the job for him. Nino liked the way the face changed in just a minute. People like that were honest people.

Nino learned Matsumoto’s name a week after, when he entered the coffee shop with his glasses on. Usually he only wore it when he had to read books or papers, but he was in a hurry between classes and did not take it off per usual. Nino read the name on the uniform as the barista with wavy hair and strong eyes took his order. Matsumoto. And Nino wondered if that Matsumoto had a name for people close to him.

Nino decided not to use the shop for his research, on the pretense that he was too familiar with it.

 

*

 

“Where is Matsumoto? I haven’t seen him for a while,” Nino asked to the barista serving him when rainy season had passed and Tokyo had almost reached its hottest and most point. Nino had changed his to-go order into iced green tea soy latte to adjust to the season.

It was not the one serving him who answered.

“Jun-kun? He had gone to Paris, I think. He quit last week,” answered Ohno from the coffee maker, “Why would you ask?”

Because Ohno had never seen Jun and Nino talked other than in ordering and serving context.

“Nothing,” Nino said, covering up that he was a little disappointed, “I just thought I had not say anything sarcastic to anyone these past few days.” He smiled and said his thanks to both Ohno and the barista that served him.

So that Matsumoto had gone to Paris. Nino wanted to ask if he had gone for good or just for a while, but he held his tongue. It was not like he knew that barista personally anyway. Maybe it was just not his luck to know more of that man. But he was a bit glad that even though the barista had gone, he still learned a little about him.

“Jun-kun… Jun…” And Nino wondered what kind of kanji to go with that sound. Nino thought he'd be happy if the kanji was “pure”.

 

*

 

More than a year had passed and Nino still frequented the same coffee shop.

He just finished presenting his research on coffee-chain consumerism in a conference that his university organized when he visited the shop that day. It was just fitting to close the day with something so close to the theme.

“One iced, decaf Americano,” he ordered, “Tall. And I use my own tumbler.” He took out his tumbler – one that had no brand at all, but had very nice ginkgo leaves pattern that went so well with the current season on it.

Then Nino heard a rather familiar voice.

“They don’t really serve iced coffee there.”

Nino turned around and saw that man on the next line, the one with wavy hair and strong eyes – or was it his eyebrows? Nino did not recognize him because it was the very first time he saw that man without barista uniform and apron. Instead, he was wearing leather overcoat that went down to his ankle, plain white t-shirt, tight blue jeans, and a pair of 18-whole army boots.

“Because it’s better served piping hot,” that man said to the sleepy senior barista at the next cashier.

Later on Nino learned that “Jun” was not written as “pure” but rather as “wet” (which Jun insisted on “charm” instead). Jun, in return, learned that Nino was a nickname of a student named Ninomiya Kazunari who hoped to get his degree by next spring. Jun still thought that ordering decaf coffee was meaningless, and Nino still gave sarcastic retorts to Jun, but it was no longer related to ordering coffee.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea at all about working as barista, but I love checking out chain coffee-shops. The references I used in this fanfic was Starbucks (for prices and coffee sizes) and St. Marc (for point card), but Tokyo actually offered many coffee chains both locals and form outside Japan; Kohikan, Yanaka, Dotour, Velloce, St. Marc, Excelsior, Tully's, and so on. However, if you have a chance to go to Japan, get your coffee at local kissaten. Hand brewed coffee tastes warmer ^_______^
> 
>    
>  _Nino though he’d be happy if the kanji was “pure”._  
>  _Later on Nino learned that “Jun” was not written as “pure” but rather as “wet” (which Jun insisted on “charm” instead)._  
>  The kanji for Jun's name is (as you know) 潤, it has the meaning of "wet", "charm", "favor", "received benefit" ... the first Jun (the one that Nino guessed) which has "pure" meaning is 純. As both dictionary in Tangorin and Rikaichan, both names use kanji meant for female names when read as "Jun".
> 
>    
> B255 is the color you get if you set your brush into RGB color and put it on R=0, G=0, B=255. in other word, BLUE blue.


End file.
